Coalition expands operations to review AVX settlement

NEW BEDFORD — Looking to add more muscle to its fight against the proposed Environmental Protection Agency settlement with AVX Corp., the Buzzards Bay Coalition has expanded its legal and environmental research team.

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By ARIEL WITTENBERG

southcoasttoday.com

By ARIEL WITTENBERG

Posted Nov. 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By ARIEL WITTENBERG

Posted Nov. 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

NEW BEDFORD — Looking to add more muscle to its fight against the proposed Environmental Protection Agency settlement with AVX Corp., the Buzzards Bay Coalition has expanded its legal and environmental research team.

The coalition has hired one law school graduate and one soon-to-be grad and brought on the services of New York- and San Francisco-based environmental law firms Super Law Group and Lawyers for Clean Water.

"We are at a critical moment in this harbor cleanup process because of the fact that the settlement will let AVX off the hook forever with them paying a dollar figure that will not be enough," said Mark Rasmussen, executive director of the coalition. "This is the first time in a long while that the broader issues of this case will be going before a judge, and it could also be the last time."

In October, the EPA came to a $366 million settlement with AVX, Aerovox's successor, to finance the cleanup of cancer-causing toxins in the harbor. The EPA has projected that the settlement will cover 90 percent of remaining cleanup costs.

Since the announcement, the Buzzards Bay Coalition has been working to fact-check those claims, Rasmussen said. During that process, the organization received more than 800 documents from the EPA relating to the settlement in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

"For a site that is this old and has this much litigation associated with it, we felt the need to expand our staff and resources to deal with it effectively," Rasmussen said. "There's no way our staff alone could handle it."

The organization has also hired Carpman Communications, a public relations firm, "to help us explain the complicated legal and scientific ramifications of this decision to the public," Rasmussen said.